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Altnet Sues Record Industry Over File Hash Patents
robochan writes "In a charming twist of fate, CNET is reporting that Altnet, a company that sells music and other digital goods through file-swapping services, is suing the RIAA for alleged patent infringement. Altnet CEO Kevin Bermeister stated, 'We cannot stand by and allow them to erode our business opportunity by the wholesale infringement of our rights.' Goodness, that sounds all too familiar..."
Anyone know what exactly they're patenting? I'm sure someone else had invented the concept of identifying a file by its hash before them.
The RIAA, much as everyone hates them, is totally in the right here. The group is suing them for a patent on FILE HASHING. Hello? Is anyone home? If they get precedent on this, say goodbye to things like, oh, security.
You have a god point, but you need to consider something:
We are far gone down the 'Lawyers Rule' system of government nowdays. As assinine as the whole patent system is right now, I think it's important the prolific abusers of this system (RIAA, MPAA, Micromule, Amazon, etc) get reemed by the other edge of the sword they use on us.
Like I said in my earlier post, get out the pitch forks and torches!
"It's not stealing if you don't get caught!"
So far as I'm concerned, patents have never been "bad". They aren't psuedo-perpetual like copyright, they expire in 7 years, and they're more easily fought and defended.
I don't need no instructions to know how to rock!!!!
"Altnet's lawsuit says that antipiracy companies Overpeer and MediaDefender are still on the hook, however. Overpeer is a "spoofing" company that posts millions of false or corrupted files on networks such as Kazaa, trying to make real files harder to find. Media Defender uses "interdiction" techniques, which essentially clog networks with requests that block real download efforts." The interdiction method they speak of... Is it essentially a DoS on the p2p networks? If so, that's a lot of crow the RIAA is going to have to force down if they lose their lawsuits...
But this is could be very bad for us. They essentially patented using hashes for file identification. This is used everywhere, if they win we lose, and if they lose we lose, nothing to be happy about here. I mean rsync heavily relies on hashes, as well as a number of other applications.
Regards,
Steve
Altnet wins: RIAA loses. That's a win, and there's the potential of a double-win, if the IP Police respond by trying to put a finger-guard on the patent buzzsaw.
Altnet loses: legal precedents that blunt the software patent buzzsaw are all to the good.
The worst-case scenario is Altnet and tha RIAA coming to a settlement.
Another glorious patent. Nobody could think of this one.
$file='kojo_againt_the_machine.mpeg'
$i=md5($file)
sql("INSERT INTO patented_database (movie,hash) VALUES($file,$i)")
mv($file,$i)
Now distribute $i, and profit!!
WOW! Another example of the genius that allows these patents. Next, the patent to patent the crypto hash! Oh, wait...
Exactly. This couldn't have happened to a more deserving group of people. You know what they say, those who live by the sword die by the sword.
On the opposite side of that coin, my regime (Were I in charge) would mandate that both the patent examiner and the applicant be forced to eat 1000 printed copies of any patents found to be blatantly obvious or to have prior art or both.
I'm trying to teach myself to set people on fire with my mind... Is it hot in here?
If this patent is demonstrated to be enforceable (it shouldn't be based on the above - but who knows), then it will effectively give Altnet the (legal, not moral) right to sue almost any P2P network out there, since they all rely on this obivous technique.
Basically it looks like their strategy would be to use this patent to force every other P2P network to install the DRM technology they have been working on.
Attacking the RIAA seems more like a stunt than a real strategy, but hopefully the RIAA has the resources to invalidate this patent, if they do, then they will be doing the world of P2P a big favor.
...and the other half are claiming that we're being hypocritical.
Actually, there is always humor in a (hated) champion outfoxed with his own techniques, but that's beside the point.
Patents have been used by the software industry to muscle out competition or to try and inflate profits by hobbling competition. The only way things are going to change is if the "big boys" are slapped hard by the rules they've created. Though the chance is slim, industry-led changes to laws (patent and DMCA-style) may open the door to real investigation into the impact of these laws. I'm not saying it's going to happen, I'm saying that the only way it will happen is if the first move is made by those with money & power.
Oh, and if you haven't sent a five-spot to Congressman Rick Boucher http://http//www.house.gov/boucher/welcome.htm/, you might want to consider it. He's one of the few outspoken opponents of the DMCA (and PATRIOT, too, for you libertarians) and is doing something about it. HOWEVER, he's being challenged by a Republican carpetbagger with lots of GOP cash backing this fall.
Is it just my observation, or are there way too many stupid people in the world?
The slashdot crowd cares, but they're not enough of us to make a difference during elections, and we tend not to be very organized.
If it looks weird that I would have a long section called "Change the Law" in an article entitled Links to Tens of Thousands of Legal Music Downloads, it is precisely because my article is a carefully calculated piece of shameless propaganda. I worked very hard over a period of several weeks to do the very best job I could on it. I aimed to attract lots of readers by offerring them free music, but to give them a political education while I had their attention.
The reason being that I knew there are far more people using peer-to-peer networks to download music than there are us slashdotters. In the US there are more p2p users than voted for George Bush in 2000. The problem is that most of them are pretty clueless about the laws and the issues, and, like the slashdot crowd, they are not just not organized, they are resistant to organization, like trying to herd cats.
That's why my article goes on to suggest several specific steps any p2p user can take to effect change, ranging from speaking out to civil disobedience. Of course I encourage readers to vote.
Of course many p2p users aren't of legal voting age, but they can take the other steps, and eventually they will be older and able to vote.
My server logs tell me that my article has been read by about 400,000 people so far. That's a lot, but not yet enough to impact the upcoming election, especially since the readers are from all over the world, not just the US. But I'm contuing to work towards getting every p2p user to read it eventually, and am now hoping I can get it to impact the midterm elections in 2006, whoever should win the one this year.
So let me repeat: if you agree with the goals I've expressed here, if you want to encourage p2p users to become active politically, if you want to bring about reform in the patent and copyright laws, you can help - significantly - if you link to my article from your own website, weblog, or from message boards.
Thanks for your help.
Request your free CD of my piano music.